FitSugar

Weekend Reading: Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels

FitSugar — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:30:00 -0700

The key to mastering your metabolism, according to the new book by Jillian Michaels? Hormones! But not in the way you normally think of hormones.

In Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones For a Hot and Healthy Body!, the Biggest Loser trainer explains how the myriad hormones that make up your endocrine system - including cortisol, ghrelin, testosterone, and leptin - work to keep your body healthy and balanced.

One of the new anti-diet books, this incredibly detailed guide combines personal memoir, serious science, and healthy eating recommendations to shed light on how artificial additives and other external factors can sabotage our weight-loss efforts. The book starts out incredibly academic, defining the various hormones and how they work; it was too much scientific jargon for me. But after wading through that I learned a lot. To find out what, read more.

Michaels's basic premise is that the toxins in processed foods, nonorganic produce, prescription medications, and the environment can throw our hormones out of whack, wreaking havoc on our systems. She writes, "Any and every body function you can imagine is controlled by your hormones." Her "three diet secrets" divide the book into three phases: removing these toxins from your life, replacing them with healthy foods, and rebalancing your hormones through diet, sleep, and exercise.

She offers a strict and simple meal plan that involves eating every four hours and tells you how to look at all the labels in your pantry and toss out the really bad stuff. She also acknowledges that we can't eat perfectly all the time and offers suggestions for good but not great foods. Along the way, she adds personal touches, like memories of being an overweight kid and confessing that she hates to exercise (which I have a hard time believing).

I like how the book offers different reasons for eating healthy than the ones we're used to hearing. It really made me think about how bad junk food really is and how every decision about what we put in our bodies has a ripple effect. This certainly isn't a book you can absorb with a quick skim; it's very dense with information. But I learned a great deal reading it and plan to return to it as a reference.

Weekend Reading: The Daily Fix by Alexa L. Fishback

FitSugar — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:55:49 -0800

Alexa L. Fishback is my kind of nutritionist: one who understands that nutrition isn't always easy for young working women on the go. Her book The Daily Fix: Your Guide to Healthy Habits For Good Nutrition, released last week, acknowledges that work happy hours can tempt us from working out and that lunch meetings are a necessary but often unhealthy obligation.

To these modern-day challenges, The Daily Fix offers all kinds of solutions, depending on your lifestyle. Fishback recommends everything from keeping a food journal to setting BlackBerry reminders for your workouts and healthy snack times. She explains how to deconstruct those catered-lunch sandwiches to make them healthier and explores how one chai latte a day can really add up in terms of calories. For all the tasty details, read more.

The book is an easy, breezy, and fun read that's also packed with pointers from how to shop smart for groceries to dealing with dining out. She illustrates her lessons with real-life case studies where she solves individual women's nutritional needs. Fishback even has a chapter called "Things We Don't Like to Discuss" that deals with health issues like IBS, PMS, and other "girly" maladies. I particularly love the Savvy Girl Tips scattered throughout, such as "Make a pact with yourself not to purchase food unless you are in a grocery store or a restaurant," to avoid impulse buys at places like Blockbuster and Walgreens.

If you're into a healthy (but realistic) lifestyle, I highly recommend picking up this surprisingly hearty book.

Weekend Reading: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

FitSugar — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:30:00 -0800

Reading about running inspires me to lace up my sneakers and hit the pavement. However, when I am curled around a book late at night in my PJs, a run isn't really a viable option. Setting my alarm, putting my running clothes out, and planning my route for the following morning - these are things I can do at 11 p.m. Reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by one of my favorite novelists Haruki Murakami, definitely had me picking out sports bras and socks by the light of my bedside reading lamp. The tone of the book is considerably more contemplative than Dean Karnazes' book 50/50, but it still makes you want to get out and run.

Murakami is a solitary guy who began experimenting with running around the same time he began writing novels and explains how those separate activities influenced each other. He explains that he is not naturally a runner or a writer, but you can feel his pride at committing to both activities for years. I fully appreciate that he blows the hard drinking, cigarette smoking stereotype of novelists out of the water. He has run a marathon every year and has even started competing in triathlons. He explains that running keeps him healthy so he can keep writing. To him the endurance required to run 26.2 miles is not that much different from writing a novel. Murakami really enjoys running, even on the days he has to beat his leg muscles to start moving and you can feel his quiet love of running on each page.

I also appreciated that I could pick up this book, flip to any page, and find myself absorbed by Murakami's thoughts on running. He is a regular dude who runs. He just also happens to write really great novels too. This book would make a great gift for the runner your life, and you can put it on your wish list too.

Find it online or at your local bookstore. Enjoy the read, but keep your sneakers close!

Weekend Reading: 50/50 by Dean Karnazes

FitSugar — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:30:00 -0700

You might know Dean Karnazes as the Ultra Marathon Man. In fact that is the url to his fancy website. Not only can this man run, run and run, he also writes entertaining and motivating books.

The subtitle of Karnazes' latest book, 50/50 ($25), which he co-authored with Matt Fitzgerald, explains the book: "Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days-and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance." I will admit, I find the thought of running a single marathon daunting, let alone 50 races back to back, in 50 different states. The endurance I gained from this book can be measured in pages per night. I flew through this book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The tone of the book is very chatty as Karnazes explains how the idea for doing 50/50 evolved and how it came to pass. He details every race and peppers his prose with helpful running tips like what to eat, what to wear, how to catch your second wind. Mostly, he wants you to get out and go for a run. Karnazes emphasizes the importance of listening to running advice and then experimenting with it to find out what works for you and your training regimen. After burning the midnight oil many nights reading, I always woke up inspired to lace up my sneakers and hit the road. As a runner who struggles with both speed and endurance, I appreciated his humble preface where he repeatedly states that he is just an average guy. His average-ness is our opening to create and meet our own challenges. I think both running newbies and old timers will enjoy this book. You can find it at Amazon, but why not just run down to your local running store to get your copy.

Weekend Reading: Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey

FitSugar — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0700

With the Summer games less than a week away and gymnastics on the top of my list of sports to watch, I was looking forward to reading Chalked Up by 1986 US Gymnastic Champion Jennifer Sey. Her memoir of the US gymnastic scene in the 80s is truly a page turner. This coming of age story is as much about the sport as Sey's overachieving, fiercely competitive personality. Although those traits might often be construed as negative, for a thirteen year old competitive gymnast they are essential.

The book is a bit repetitive, but the rhythm mirrors the relentless repetitions of "sticking" a complicated beam routine ten consecutive times. Her accounts of her injuries are particularly painful to read, and broken bones are celebrated as preferable injuries to career ending knee dislocations. Sey definitely delves into the darker side of gymnastics, how it denies a little girl childhood and denies a budding teenage womanly curves. Sey is berated for having three percent body fat at age 18 and this after abusing laxatives for years, and she states repeatedly that gymnastics is a sport for girls and at 17 she is over the hill.

There's more so read more.

Witnessing someone's struggle with her demons definitely holds a reader's interest, and to this story add the element of public competition of one of America's favorite women's sports and you have a page turner. Sey's demons are internal (perfectionism, body image) and external (the unforgiving apparatus like uneven parallel bars, four inch wide balance beam, the vault). Her internal struggles follow her into adulthood, but as a mother of two with a career in advertising she has definitely carved a life beyond gymnastics.

You can see clips of her performing feats in competition at her website and you can buy her book online or check your local bookstore. It is a quick read and you could definitely finish it by August 10th when the female gymnasts begin competing in Beijing.

Weekend Reading: Hungry Girl Recipes

FitSugar — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0700

Of course I eat healthy because I know it's good for me and helps me maintain my weight, but that doesn't mean I don't crave French fries, brownies, and other sweet and fattening foods. To keep my taste buds satisfied, I just found a unique recipe book that has low calories and low fat ideas for some of your favorite dishes. Hungry Girl: Recipes ($13) contains recipes with cute names like Eggs Bene-Chick (183 calories), Ooey Gooey Chili Cheese Nachos (216 calories), Big Bopper Burger Stopper (202 calories), and Dreamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge (65 calories).

The directions are easy, and many of them are for one serving only, so you're not tempted to eat four servings at one sitting. I love the photos of the foods, although I wish there were more. The book also has recipes for low cal cocktails. Since I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners, and that is what many of the recipes called for, I opted to use Sucanat instead. Of course some of the recipes were better than others (like with all recipe books), but overall, I thought this was a great one to add to my collection.

Weekend Reading: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

FitSugar — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0700

I have a new food bible. It is not written by a chef, a nutritionist or a dietitian, but a journalist. The irony of dispensing nutritional advice as a journalist is not lost on the author of In Defense of Food ($21), Michael Pollan.
He actively wonders throughout this great little book on the circumstances that led food, the sustenance of life, to become so vulnerable that it needed to be defended from bad government policy and bad science. The complexities of government politics and macronutrients lead the US population down a slippery slope of very processed low fat foods.

There's more so read more.
Pollan details our recent food history, back to The Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs or the late 1970s, and provides a little back history answering questions why cereal became a breakfast staple at the turn of the 19th century. If that sounds overly dry, like a piece of toast with no butter and jam, it is not. This book is a surprisingly exciting read. Yes, this eater's manifesto, as the sub title declares, is truly a page turner and it is useful too. Pollan has created some rules to serve as eating guidelines. The main tenet is simple: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Easy to follow and apply at every meal – these seven words could change your life. There is a catch though; Pollan doesn't consider processed food to be actual food. He's a label reader too and shuns unpronounceable ingredients.

The last third of the book breaks down his basic principle of eating into many sub rules for more guidance. The book is worth reading and the guidelines worth following. You can buy the book at Amazon, but chances are high it is for sale at your local bookstore too.

Weekend Reading: The 8 Colors of Fitness

FitSugar — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0700

You may be doing the wrong type of exercise, according to The 8 Colors of Fitness ($20.99). The author, Suzanne Brue, believes that your personality affects how you think and feel about exercise. So if you know your likes and dislikes, you'll be able to choose sports or types of workouts that are right for who you are. If you enjoy it and it jives with your personality, then you'll be more likely to stick with it.

In the book, you take a Myers-Briggs personality quiz to figure out which color of fitness you are. You can also take it online. It may help you realize that if you prefer alone time, then running in the woods might be better for you than a step aerobics class. On the other hand, if you're a people person, you may enjoy joining a soccer team instead of working out solo at a gym.

If you're curious to know what each color means, then read more.

When it comes to fitness or being physical:

Reds are quick responders
Whites like to plan ahead and are visionary; they prefer calm spaces and don't like to be rushed
Greens are outdoorsy types and nature lovers
Golds are traditional and conservative
Saffrons are playful and value individual expression
Blues like to create their own safe space at a gym
Purples like routine
Silvers enjoy exercise that's disguised as fun or a way to meet others

This book gives great insight into why certain types of fitness are more appropriate for your personality. It's amazing no one has thought of this sooner, but it makes so much sense, doesn't it? If you're interested in learning more, you can order this book through Amazon.

Weekend Reading: Skinny B*tch In the Kitch

FitSugar — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:00:00 -0700

You know how much I enjoyed reading Skinny Bitch, so I was happy to see that these spunky authors came out with a cookbook called Skinny Bitch In the Kitch ($13.45).

The first book gave us pointers on how not to eat crap so we can start looking fabulous, and now this book is showing us how to make foods that are good for us as well as being filling and oh-so tasty. These authors understand your cravings. They say that, "Life without lasagna isn't a life worth living; chocolate cake is vital to our survival; and no one can live without mac 'n cheese - no one." Their book includes recipes for every craving you can think of: Bitchin' Breakfasts, PMS (Pissy Mood Snacks), Comfort Cookin', Hearty Ass Sandwiches, Sassy Soups and Stews, and Happy Endings (Desserts). There are a ton of easy recipes in this book, so get your skinny butt to the bookstore and start cooking.

Weekend Reading: Ten Years Thinner

FitSugar — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0800

If you search hard enough, you can find a diet/exercise book that tells you what you want to hear. I have found this to be true for both gardening and child rearing, and now I know it to be true in the quest for a healthier, fitter, thinner body.

The contrast between Ten Years Thinner ($26) and The Thrive Diet is a case in point. Ten Years Thinner, written by Christine Lydon, M.D., argues that lean animal protein and strength training are the key components to looking and feeling your best. On the other hand, The Thrive Diet asserts that vegan, and even raw food, along with endurance training is where you will find your wealth of health. I have only read these books, and haven't followed either plan, but the contrast is fascinating to me. Both books lay out their plans convincingly, and discuss how their diets combat the negative impact of inflammation while increasing your energy levels. It just boils down to finding a plan you think you can follow for the long haul.

Want to hear the details about Ten Years Thinner? Then read more.

The diet plan in Ten Years Thinner starts with eliminating certain foods and gradually adding them back into your diet over the course of six weeks. The first two weeks you avoid legumes, soy based food, dairy, grains and high glycemic index foods like potatoes, fruit juice and alcohol. Each subsequent week you reintroduce these forbidden foods, so in the end no food groups are completely off limits. Although you are encouraged to eat as little grains as possible as well as alcohol.

Workout wise the focus is strength training in daily 20 minute sessions, for four consecutive days followed by a rest day. The workouts are designed to get your heart rate up and create a post workout metabolism calorie burn too. The cool thing is that the exercise plan requires no gym time; you can do the workouts in the comfort of your own home with hand weights, a mat, a step stool and a pillow. The book includes a handful of recipes and workouts to follow. The tone of the book is, of course, up beat and friendly even though Lydon does mention that she went to Yale for medical school a few too many times in the introduction. The information is detailed and easy to follow. If you do decide to follow this plan you can find online support here in the form of active forums.

If you are curious and want to check out the book for yourself it is available at Amazon for $17.16, $8 off the cover price.

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